National Grid's focusing disaster efforts on on Mohawk, Oneida

ONEIDA>> National Grid will be doing all it can to help victims with clean-up and power restoration here in Oneida and in the Mohawk Valley.

The company has inspected many of its service lines, finding that on its end in the city, power can be reestablished as soon homes can be inspected and deemed safe to reconnect.

National Grid's New York President Ken Daly said that the incident doesn't differ much from the effects that hurricane Sandy had on the City and other parts of the state on their end, which covers up to the meters on homes. According to Daly, there were over 300 electric and gas customers in the Oneida area that are without service since the flood. Statewide, there are over 1700 gas customers and 700 electric customers without service.

They have had crews working since Friday to make sure National Grid's system's were intact. At this point, all of it's services are ready for reconnection on their end, but must be taken care of on an individual level in each home.

Advertisement

"The challenge in the second stage is reconnecting individual homes; we have to bring inspectors in to make sure they are all safe," Daly said. "Once they are inspected, we can go door-to-door and reconnect services."

Daly said that the company will be paying fees for inspection in flood damaged communities in Oneida and parts of the Mohawk Valley, a service fee that could reach up to $85. This will allow inspectors to move quickly from home-to-home to get services back on. These inspectors have to be set up by the customer, at no cost to the customer. Inspection agencies in the affected areas have been notified of the opportunity.

Phase three for the company is all about community action, providing people with necessities to help clean up and create safe living conditions. Daly said the company will go to houses in effected areas and hand out items such as brooms, shovels, carbon monoxide detectors, flashlights and bleach.

"Anything people need to get their homes back up and running and get back on their feet," Daly said. "Our big concern now is what the weather will do the next couple of days."

All service calls through national grid that do not pertain to the flood damage or flood areas are being put on hold as the company shifts into storm mode, with each of its employees picking up new responsibilities for flood response. Daly said that non-flood related service calls may resume on Friday, but, with the possibility of coming storms, those appointments could get pushed back into the beginning of next week.